The campaign for Initiative 122, which has raised $1.3 million, warned about a late-starting No Election Vouchers campaign that has collected just $43,966. True, the money comes largely from major area-based corporations.

Seattle – a nice place for a political fight. The city is growing. Unemployment is under 4 percent, Forbes ranks it as 5th best city in America for good jobs. But business is very unpopular in certain quarters. (seattlepi.com file photo)

“They oppose I-122 because it would ban pay to play: For example, Microsoft has a big contract with the city. I-122 would ban Microsoft from making direct contributions to candidates,” wrote Heather Weiner for Honest Elections Seattle.

It’s hard to think that Microsoft corporate fortunes will rise or fall with its Seattle city contract. True, Microsoft has given $10,000 to No Election Vouchers. But the Washington, D-C.-based lobby Every Voice has poured $379,000 into Honest Elections Seattle. New York venture capitalist Sean Eldridge has donated $200,000 to the campaign — 20 times the individual donations that Microsoft, Sabey and Vulcan have made to the opposition.

The emerging ideology of Seattle activism seems to be that any and all business involvement in politics is intrinsically bad. I-122 would bar political giving by firms with $250,000 or more contracts with the city. It bars senior Seattle officials from lobbying the city for pay over three years after leaving their office/position. It would boost property taxes to give “Democracy Vouchers” to citizens, to be redeemed by candidates of their choice.

The initiative is selective. Labor unions do a lot of business with City Hall — They negotiate contracts for city employees — but face no restrictions on activities. The city’s bossy interest groups could, and would, get free rein to direct their followers where to spend their vouchers.

The demonizing of business in Seattle is downright weird. The city is booming, with unemployment down to a little over 3 percents. Expedia and Weyerhaeuser are moving their headquarters to Seattle. Forbes magazine rates us No. 5 in America for good jobs. The city has adopted, with business cooperation, a phased in $15-an-hour minimum wage and a mandatory paid sick leave ordinance.

The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce long ago severed ties with the reactionary, climate change denying U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Our technology billionaires donated millions in 2012 to support marriage equality. Amazon is a prime booster of the Equality Act, which would outlaw discrimination by sexual preference and gender preference across the country.

The juxtaposing of events gets amusing.

She claims colleagues are “bought and sold by the very rich,” but here is Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, flanked by U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez and Mayor Ed Murray, at celebration of Seattle’s Council-approved $15 minimum wage plan. (Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com)

The Stranger recently endorsed Fred Felleman for Seattle Port Commission. It cited a $1,000 donation to opponent Marion Yoshino by Alaska Airlines to argue she would be beholden to “big business overlords.”

Days earlier, however, Washington Wild presented Alaska Airlines and CEO Brad Tilden with an award for helping preserve the natural Washington. Tilden was instigator of a letter from 45 business executives that helped persuade Congress to put 22,000 acres of King County land into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, and protect the Middle Fork-Snoqualmie River under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Yet, a new, technology-centered — and often socially enlightened — business culture gets saddled with the image of John D. Rockefeller, Frederick Weyerhaeuser, J.P. Morgan and the modern-day Koch Brothers and the Club for Greed, oops, Club for Growth.

A fun house image of the city has been created. Seattle has been a place where everybody gets consulted about everything. Big business, small business, organized labor — still a player here — social activists, all have enjoyed a place at the table.

Yet, here is Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant at a Seattle University debate: “We all know how big business dominates politics and how their dirty game is played.” She went on to claim (without naming names) that Council colleagues are “bought and sold by the very rich.”

In such a fun house world, it’s O.K. to take money from some interests but not others.

“NOT FOR SALE: The Council member money can’t buy,” says a Sawant ad, nestled in among Sawant endorsements and Sawant hagiography on The Stranger’s website.

Yet, this is the voice of a candidate who has raised $415,666, compared to $341,354 for challenger Pamela Banks and just $17,000 for a much-demonized “Neighbors for Banks” independent expenditure group.

Sawant has built a network of small donors that makes other candidates salivate. But not all of her donors are small.

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area exported $61.9 billion in goods last year, No. 4 in the nation. But the Seattle City Council recently passed a resolution blasting the Trans Pacific Partnership.

A total of 23 unions, based here and elsewhere, have “maxed out” with $700 donations to the Sawant campaign. Many of the unions’ executives have done likewise. They’re a special interest, every bit as much as the Vulcan executives who put in $700.

The two Seattle campaigns with the biggest war chests this year are Honest Elections Seattle ($1.308 million) and Sawant ($415,000).

By contrast, the biggest business-backed “independent” expenditure committee, United for Tim, has raised $218,000 for the reelection of Seattle City Council President Tim Burgess. The campaign boosting the gargantuan $930 million Let’s Move Seattle property tax levy has raised $222,000, from both business and labor unions that stand to profit from it.

If that’s the case, Honest Elections Seattle is the Carlton Complex of campaigns, while No Election Vouchers is a West Seattle brush fire. When Honest Elections wins, as is likely, victors will claim that Seattle voters stood up to big corporate money.